How GoPro’s Will Change the Look of the 2013 Formula Drift Season

Let’s start off with the good news is that Formula Drift has banned all exterior mounted cameras for the Saturday of Formula Drift for the 2013 season with the obvious exception of Formula Drift TV. Hopefully any violators will have their cameras auctioned off to the fans at the lowest price.

Sadly the rules of camera usage get quite confusing past this no exterior cameras on Saturday rule. Here is a list of when you can use a camera, when you cannot use a camera, how, when, why, and only GoPro hours. Review this before packing over the weekend media people. Hope this clears things up as we provide a full breakdown below of actions allowed and not allowed starting this weekend in Long Beach.

Thursday Practice/Open Practice
Open to all Camera Types

Formula Drift Weekend in Pits/Paddock/Car Show
Open to all Camera Types

I heard some drivers are going to be losing some sponsorship money from other camera providers due to this rule. I assume payouts aren’t going up either. Sounds like it’s all lose for the drivers and all win for FD. that sucks.

Have seen this all before, company that puts in the money gets to do what it wants, same thing happened at World Time Attack, Yokohama got spanked by Hankook so this time around they had a hissy and now there’s a ‘control tyre’, so really now that they have the money to dictate terms in the series and instead of making their cameras better or cheaper so that people use them by choice, instead now because they have to

2) Drivers who signed contracts and rcvd money from those contracts which went to building their car, paying for transportation, and paying their crew who they have contracts with. Now the sponsors want their money back because FD came out with this last minute rule and the drivers cant fulfill their obligations per their contracts. How do these drivers come up with the money to pay back their sponsor when they’ve already spent it to fund their programs?

3) Worst case senerio the drivers get sued from the sponsors who gave them money to run their cameras which no longer are allowed.

Thanks Formula D for being so organized as usual. How is the sport suppose to grow when all you care about is benefiting your pocket. XDC needs to get their shit together so everyone can run in their series instead.

I dig this rule, while I appreciate the footage from onboard cameras, seeing 5-10 gopros on every single car gets quite annoying. They make the still photographs ugly, and in some cases youv’e got gopros taking images with another gopro in view.

In regards to sponsorship, those with deals will have to think outside the box on getting content to their respective sponsors (I’m sure there will be plenty of interior mounted onboards now with portholes at the front, rear, and sides which will make sponsors obligations full-filled and keep the dollars flowing).

Yeah FD sucks!! F getting sponsorship and giving in to the man. F getting money to run good events and actually paying prize money. F paying to get the sport on tv and livestream. Thank you for your wisdom.

I think there are far better solutions than to completely restrict the cameras. Why not give the drivers a camera limit (say 4/5), and give them the choice of whose camera goes on their car? Keeps sponsors happy, keeps the video guys happy, keeps the spectators happy.

what about data acquisition systems that competitors run that include video? i mean this rule kinda screws competitors on that one.. maybe FD will make an exception as usually the quality on these cameras isn’t the greatest and cant be used for commercial production. i really hope this doesn’t affect the drivers and their ability to use technology and on-board data acquisition to better their driving abilities.

But wait wait wait, what does “approved media gopros” mean? If I’m a videographer who has been approved to be on track (vest/hard card etc.) and I have a GoPro (not contour) that means that I can mount my gopro in/on the car in every situation except for Top 32? If that’s the case then it’s kinda sucky if you don’t have a gopro, but not the end of the world. But yeah, depends on what “approved media” means. If that just means only the super leet Yaerwilkersonblasterhunters people can get cameras on cars then that’s super wack.